


Did You Say It?

by Allie773



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Established Relationship, Grey's Anatomy References, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Major Character Injury, Plane Crash, Post-Avengers (2012), Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 13:08:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11760534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allie773/pseuds/Allie773
Summary: When a mission with disloyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents results in the Avengers crashing into battle, someone on the team suffers dire injuries that they hide until it's too late.Set sometime after the Avengers, but before AoU. Loosely follows canon and ignores the part where Coulson died.





	Did You Say It?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work in the Marvel universe, but long-time avid reader, so don't go too hard on me. 
> 
> Heavily inspired from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZd7gjdkMUM) scene of Grey's Anatomy, which is one of my all time favorites from the show. The angst-loving reader/writer in me always pictured Steve and Tony in Lexie and Mark's position, and I finally got around to writing it. 
> 
> Blatant line usage from the scene, which I do not claim to own or profit from. 
> 
> Title taken from another episode of Grey's Anatomy, but it was applicable here so I threw it in. 
> 
> (Doesn't require previous knowledge of GA or watching the scene to understand the plot, it just adds additional visuals and feels for those that have.)

“Won and done case,” Nick Fury had said. “Neutralize the threat and return to base. You’ll be packed up and flying back to your tower before the seven o’clock news, Stark.”

  
He should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.

  
The mission itself wasn’t complicated at all, really: take down the baddies (without taking them out, permanently), and fly them to S.H.I.E.L.D. for further questioning. He could’ve done it remotely from his workshop, never even stepping foot into battle, except for one catch: the identities and strengths of said baddies were, unfortunately, unknown. That left everyone on the team little room to argue any ifs, ands, or buts on who was going. While they could all be taking a three-and-a-half-hour flight to shoot the villain equivalent of cotton candy out of the sky, they could also be driving straight into a hornet’s nest, buzzing with enhanced soldiers and stingers they weren’t afraid of using.

  
Alas, the Avengers prepared themselves as well as they could for the unknown, and boarded a quinjet calibrated with coordinates acquired via “reliable alternative sources,” which, if you don’t know, is spy talk for- well, spies. Good-guy spies, or as close as one can get when playing that sort of game, anyways.

  
What they couldn’t prepare for, however, was being blasted right out of the sky six minutes outside of the area’s perimeter.

  
Those reliable, alternative sources? Yeah- turns out, they were also willing to tip the hand of the opposing side, for the right price. And if you know anything about superhero business, it’s that the bad guys are always willing to meet your price if you have good intel.

  
Which they did.

  
Hence Iron Man’s hurried abortion from the hull of the quinjet with Black Widow and Hawkeye under each arm as the left engine blew out, helicoptering them all into a jerky spiral to the ground. Hulk’s roar echoed through the tree line, and the blurry green figure leaping out of the side of the jet charged in the direction of the base before it even finished crashing. Racing to set the agents down safely, Iron Man watched in horror as his two remaining teammates plummeted to the ground before skidding to a stop some meters later.

  
_“Cap!?”"_ he yelled, thrusters glowing bright as they prepared to fly over to the wreckage.

  
“I’m fine. Everyone else, copy?” Over the chorus of his teammates relaying the order, Tony’s breath came in harsh gasps as he tried to calm himself.

  
“Good, good. Iron Man, fly ahead and secure the perimeter. Take down any stragglers that managed to get the jump on us, and work containment until we know the severity of the situation. Hawkeye, see if you can get a vantage point, pinpoint the center of control, and identify any major players while providing ground cover. Widow, work through the footmen and establish a front. See if you can locate any serious weapons they may have. Thor, give air coverage and assist the Hulk. Over?”

  
As Thor swung his hammer out of the wreckage, he grabbed Widow and dropped her at distance from the edge of the fighting before engaging in barracks demolition with the Hulk. Iron Man grabbed Hawkeye, setting him down at his chosen perch when instructed and flying to the outside borders to take down the gunmen that shot at them.

  
Overall, the battle wasn’t the most strenuous they had faced so far, merely taxing as they had to comb over every inch of the place to ensure the safety of the locals and the world, atomic bombs and resurrected diseases missing from the scene (for once). Zip ties, handcuffs, and whatever else they could get their hands on were used to bind their attackers. It wouldn’t hold them forever, but with a majority of them thoroughly beaten or unconscious, it would have to do until the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet came to retrieve them.

  
Taking stock of everyone’s injuries, only minor cuts and bruises were to be found. A gash on Natasha’s right thigh would definitely need stitches, and the suit would certainly need to be patched up once he flew back to New York, but altogether they fared well.

  
It wasn’t until the dust began to settle, the call for a S.H.I.E.L.D. pick up through JARVIS was already carried out, and ammo clips were reloaded for habit’s sake that they realized their leader was nowhere to be seen. Vocal commands were given with shaking breath throughout the fight, but they had assumed it was the Captain fighting alongside them that had caused it. Only after calling out turned into full-fledged screaming did Steve reply to his name, a wet cough breaking through the static in the earpiece.

  
“Where _are_ you?” Tony demanded, his fear transporting through the comm link to each of his teammates.

  
“At the crash,” Steve whispered back.

  
With not-so-quiet curses under his breath, the others heard the coattails of “stupid, idiotic, _fool_ of a man. That ignorant son of a-” before his thrusters boomed against the ground, damaged suit flying to the carcass of the quinjet with determination.

  
The silence that fell on the comm link had the others hobbling to the crash site, Tony’s murmuring cutting off with no explanation moments after they heard the thrusters power off. Thor’s calming words to Hulk trailed off as he turned in the direction of the crash, hammer dropping until he could slowly swing it, prepared to fly the distance to the Captain.

  
“Tony,” they heard, wet coughing catching on until it shook his lungs, breaking apart something that came up thick and slow.

  
Tony’s voice wobbled on Steve’s name as he regained control of his legs, running over to try and lift the warped metal from on top of his lover. The servos in his suit whirred to life, sparks shooting out and small puffs of smoke seeping out of the layers of damaged metal. With a groan, the quinjet shifted slowly up, but pained cries from Steve had him gently lowering it back.

  
“Steve…” he gasped, unable to process what he was seeing as he laid belly down on the ground in front of him.

  
Steve’s hair, always so immaculately parted on the side, making him look every bit a man born in the twenties, was wild and clumped together with drying blood. Part of his eyebrow was lost in a sea of red that ran down his temple until it hit the dirt below. His full lips, lips Tony had seen do wildly inappropriate things, had done wildly inappropriate things _to_ , were pale and dry, cracking with every gurgle of blood he upended. The metal swallowed him from the abdominal region down, leaving only his chest and right arm visible. The comm unit Steve had torn from his ear the second Tony landed laid mere inches away from his face.

  
“Tony,” he cried out so quietly, only he himself could hear the terrified tone in his voice.

  
“Steve. Steve, baby, it’s gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team will be here any minute-”

  
“Tony-”

  
“-just a few minutes, okay? They’ll be here any minute.”

  
“Tony. Tony- I’m dying.”

  
His head whipped around from the forest he was scanning to stare into painfully blue eyes, his ears ringing to a deafening pitch to block out anything other than the sound of Steve’s voice.

  
“What? No you’re not,” he shook his head. His chest felt like it was about to collapse, the suit was crushing him in, he couldn’t _breathe._

  
Steve hummed in agreement, his breath drawing short halfway through. Seeing that broad, powerful chest flutter like butterfly wings on one breath was almost too much to bear.

  
“I-I am. Tell- tell the team, that I love them. Tell Coulson he-he was a great handler. Please- please. Tell, Fury-” he panted out, and Tony couldn’t hear it for a second longer.

  
“You’re not dying. You hear me? You’re gonna be fine. There’s no way- no _freaking_ way, after everything, after nearly seventy years on ice, you die now. You understand me? You’ve tapped out on dying from plane crashes, Steve. You’ve used up your poetic, heroic ending. Squabbled it- now you have to grow old, and die, like the rest of us. Hairless, wrinkled, and ugly, with some twenty-year-old nurse giving you sponge baths in a retirement home in Miami. You hear me, Steve? You don’t die today.”

  
Where the team was wobbling and jogging to meet up with the two of them before, at that, they all broke into a full-on sprint, Thor searching for the crash and Hulk thundering through the trees behind him.

 

Steve let out a harsh breath in a laugh at his boyfriend’s rambling, used to it by now to know what he meant without saying it aloud. His gloved hand twitched up towards Tony, reaching out with his fingers.

  
“Hold- my hand,” he panted, and the others could hear his tired smile across the channel.

  
“I’m not holding your hand because you’re not dying, Steve,” Tony hissed.

  
“Hold my hand.”

  
“No.”

  
“Please.”

  
“No, I won’t. You don’t die today.” At that, Tony raised up, the joints in his suit scraping together and whining in protest. He ignored it, gauntlets wrapping around the edge of the metal and pulling up with all his strength. Steve’s labored breaths became heavier, his face scrunching up and he breathed through his teeth.

  
Tony grunted out in what could’ve been a scream, or some other animalistic sound, he wasn’t sure. A small light flashed inside his HUD, and JARVIS’s contrite voice came in low over the speakers inside his suit. “I’m sorry, Sir, but any additional change in Captain Rogers’ condition could prove detrimental at this time.”

  
“And what could be helpful _at this time_ , J?” he shot back with venom.

  
After a long pause, the AI’s soft voice spoke the words “I don’t know, Sir,” for the first time.

  
With a ragged, deep breath in, and a slow exhale, he lowered the metal the few centimeters back down once again. And with it, everything felt heavy; his suit, his skin, his bones, his heart, all of it felt so heavy he could collapse.

  
Taking a moment to gather himself, the air lock on his helmet hissed as it came detached. Setting it on the ground by his feet, he hit the clasps for his gauntlets to release as well, sliding them off and laying them on the wrecked metal before lying down and carefully grasping Steve’s gloved hand between both of his.

  
Steve’s mouth twitched up in response, his eyes full of warmth as he gazed into Tony’s. A lone tear fell across his face, through the dirt tracks and over the bridge of his crooked nose before falling away.

  
“I love you.” Tony’s whole body shook at the confession, his bare fingers greedy as they latched onto red leather and held Steve’s hand tighter.

  
Steve’s smile grew knowingly, his eyes cracking at the corners as they gathered tears and he rolled them high before breathing out: “You don’t have to say it, just because I said it first.”

  
Tony shook his face, the memory of himself freaking out as Steve laughed at him over something silly in his workshop before telling him he loved him. Tony had muttered out half sentences, scrambling for a socket wrench and turning on his stool to tinker with something while internal alarms were ringing, warning him. Steve had taken it in stride, bless him, coming up behind him and wrapping his strong arms around his waist before placing a light kiss into his messy curls. He whispered to him that it was okay, that he didn’t have to say it back, that he had just wanted to tell Tony how he felt because he deserved to know. He had left after that, letting Tony have his own personal meltdown before crawling into their bed that night and laying on top of Steve’s chest, head nuzzling under his jaw. Just as he was falling asleep, the super soldier’s arm had wrapped around his waist so tight he couldn’t move an inch, and he breathed in Tony’s hair and hummed out in happiness before falling back asleep.

  
How that had only been a week ago, Tony couldn’t figure. It had felt like a century had gone by since he woke up this morning with Steve curled up behind him, coming to with warm kisses at the nape of his neck.

  
“I do, I love you. I’ve always been in love with you. Even when I was pig-headed and wanted to pull your pigtails like we were in grade school back on the helicarrier, right after you woke up. Even when I was a kid, growing up on stories of you from Howard. Wanted to be like you, wanted to earn your approval, but mostly, I just wanted _you_. Wanted to know what it would feel like to be loved by someone like that.”

  
“Yeah?” Steve breathed out, wonder holding onto the lights of his eyes.

  
“Yeah. Which is why you have to stay alive. We- we’re gonna get married.”

  
His lips opened in shock, momentarily forgetting to tongue out the blood still pooling in his mouth. Eyes brimming with tears, he squeezes Tony’s hand as hard as he can.

  
The weak twitch of Steve’s hand in Tony’s nearly makes him sob, grasping tighter as he purses his lips together before continuing, tears of his own steadily falling.

  
“And, and you’re gonna do amazing things, Steve. Fight the good fight several more years with us, eventually take over as Commander of S.H.I.E.L.D, trade in your spangley outfit for special agent black.”

  
A small laugh punches out of Steve, his eyes squinting in mirth as he nods.

  
“And, and we’re gonna have kids. Adopt some off the street, from those orphanages you sneak off to every Sunday.”

  
His grin is so wide it’s blinding, and Tony can’t help but grin back, kissing his glove reverently.

  
“Yeah?”

  
“Yeah, two girls and two boys. To start, anyways.”

  
“That’s- that’s nice.” Steve’s breaths are becoming shallower, getting less air in before having to gasp for more.

  
“The team will spoil them rotten, you’ll see. We’re gonna be so happy, Steve, you and me. You’ll see.” Steve’s gasping openly for air by now, grin on his face all the while, looking into Tony’s soul like he can stay here forever as long as he wills it.

  
His voice drops down to a whisper, Steve’s loud breaths the only other noise in the whole forest.

  
“So you can’t die, okay? That’s why you have to stay alive, Steve. Because we’re supposed to end up together. We’re meant to be,” he chokes out, cries coming out of his tightened throat.

  
“Meant to be,” Steve reveres, grin fading into a small, private smile. His last breath comes out slow, eyes staying focused on Tony’s as he grows unnaturally still. Blue eyes gloss over, looking right at him but not seeing anything anymore, and Tony shatters apart.

  
“I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you-”

  
He sounds like a broken record, and the hand that covered Steve’s reaches out and touches his face, Steve’s eyelids shutting as he desperately tries to keep Steve here, with him.

  
Steve’s last tear crawls down his face, glistening against the sun as it runs over his still features.

  
He buries his head in his arm, holding onto Steve’s hand like a lifeline, uncaring of the metal that digs into his body at the awkward angle, and sobs.

  
He cries so hard he doesn’t even hear Thor land nearby, or the others run up to see the aftermath, Hulk coming to a halt and freezing in place.

  
He doesn’t raise his head to see the Norse god ball his hands into fists, throwing his hammer as hard as he can into a nearby pine tree and watching it disintegrate with the force.

  
He doesn’t see Hawkeye lower himself onto the ground, head hung low between his legs as he closes his eyes in silence.

  
He doesn’t notice how Natasha’s eyes gain a lost, fragile quality to them as she stares at the Iron Man mask in the dirt, right next to the gloved, red hand being held by Tony’s bare one.

  
He doesn’t hear Hulk roar in anguish, head to the sky as he beats his chest.

  
He doesn’t feel the S.H.I.E.L.D. medical team lightly pull on his shoulder, or hear them settle their equipment around him, as they gather Steve’s broken body onto a stretcher.

  
He doesn’t see Thor lower the metal back down in place as he walks next to Steve, loading up into the quinjet and sitting on the bench as they cover Steve’s lower half with a medical blanket.

  
He doesn’t notice the team loading into the quinjet sometime later, or pay them any attention as the engine fires up and they fly back to New York.

  
He doesn’t let go of Steve’s hand until much, much later, after everyone’s gone and it’s just the two of them again. Only then does he let go, reaching for Steve’s face in one last intimate gesture, his cold, pale cheeks nestled into his palms. Leaning down, he takes his face into his hands and kisses him on the lips, soft, chaste; he waits for something, anything, for a long time.

  
He doesn’t lean back until he can clear his throat to whisper: “I love you.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! 
> 
> What did you enjoy the most? Did any GA fans appreciate the parallels? 
> 
> Leave a comment and tell me if you want to hear more from me! Thanks for reading!


End file.
